Journaling: the gateway to intuition
While it may not be considered a traditional business or marketing strategy, in the course of my own business I have found that journaling is a kind of superpower. Over the years I had journaled a little but it was spotty at best. Mostly I would journal when I was upset with something or someone as it helped me vent.
Some years ago I heard of Julia Cameron’s book “The Artist’s Way.” In the book she describes morning pages, a practice of writing 3 pages first thing in the morning. Without structure, just whatever comes to mind. It intrigued me. Not only does writing allow us to sort our thoughts and gain clarity but it also gets the thoughts that are clunking around in our heads out, clearing a path for creative energy to be able to come forth. At that time I was also going through a tough time in life, so I bought a notebook and gave it a go.
I don’t even want to venture a guess as to how many filled notebooks have been collected in my house. I’ve rarely missed writing my pages in 5 years, even if some days it wasn’t 3 (or more) pages but just a paragraph.
It became a ritual that embedded itself firmly into my routine and it’s so valuable to me that I look forward to each morning and it’s a non-negotiable start for my day. Not only that, but besides the ideas that come to me at night or on walks, it has been the place where ideas and dreams live.
Author and entrepreneur Amanda Frances, in her book “Rich as *uck” talks about cementing new mindsets and mantras in different mediums - to say things out loud, put things out onto a vision board, write them. As I listened to her book, I realized that my journaling practice was much more than writing.
When I was a kid, there was a British kid’s show called “Simon in the land of chalk drawings.” Whatever Simon drew on his magic chalkboard came true and he could enter his drawings and have adventures. I realized that journaling was my land of chalk drawings and if I write it, it can come true and send me on adventures. Not only personal, but business adventures too!
Writing transforms thoughts into words. Those words transport those thought into paper, like people piling into a car and driving somewhere. When the people are in the car on their way to their destination, they are no longer in the place they started from. In this case the thoughts leave your mind and your mind is then open for ideas to flow - because now there’s room! Those ideas transform into thoughts and then transform into words and a cycle starts. And this is how my intuition speaks to me. When my intuition talks it is usually on the topic of my dreams and direction. When I write it, I want it to happen and even just this process sets things in motion. When the thought is planted, it grows like a seed and then before you know it, you revisit some old pages and realize that what you wrote came true. And it’s not magic like in a kid’s show, but a powerful manifestation technique of expressing a desire and then subconsciously setting the conditions for that desire to come true, by putting it into the car and driving it to its destination!
Meditation, vision-boarding and other techniques can also accomplish this, but journaling seems to be what draws me. Give it a go and see what messages your intuition sends you!